


New Stitches

by raptorginger



Series: Tumblr Requests [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Birth, Gen, No Angst, Tumblr Prompt, anon request, sfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 13:57:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16388996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raptorginger/pseuds/raptorginger
Summary: Anon request for no angst and safe for workFor a piece with a very different flavor, please check out ‘Fortune with Your Coffee?’You know how there’s things in your head you just have to get out?  This is one of them for me.  This is essentially the birth story of Baby Raptorginger, so please be kind (not that you lovely people have ever been anything but kind to me, but you know). I’m super nervous about putting this one out into the aether





	New Stitches

Rey felt her mind being pulled in two different directions. One half, the more rational and logical half, was trying to listen very very closely to what Doctor Holdo was saying. The other, more primal and primitive, was screaming at her to push. _Hard_. That was the half she listened to as she screwed up her features, gripped the bar the nurses had placed over her bed, and pushed. Hard. _Thank the gods for epidurals_ , Rey thought as she tried her hardest to push. She was getting so tired. And to think she’d only been at this for, what, an hour? If that? What time was it again? Doctor Holdo immediately stopped talking and coached her through it, telling her when to breathe, when not to. The nurse monitored the machine next to Rey’s bed, watching for the needle to go back down, indicating that the contraction was over. Ben offered gentle words of encouragement as he rested his hand over hers on the bar and rubbed the upper part of her back. Everyone jokingly said she’d hate her husband when she gave birth, but she found the opposite to be true. She had never loved Ben more than she did right now. She was terrified, but he was there, never leaving her side. He held her hand when she asked, backed away when she asked, fixed her hair when it got messy. He spoke softly, holding his own emotions in check, all for her.

As the contraction subsided, Rey exhaled loudly, Doctor Holdo giving her a small smile.

“Great job, Rey,” the lavender haired doctor said in a calm voice. “I wanted to give you an update,” she paused, “And some options.”

Rey began to feel a flicker of panic in her chest. 

“Breathe,” Ben whispered beside her, rubbing her back.

Rey inhaled deeply, letting it out in a heavy rush.

“Rey, you’ve been doing so great. I want you to know that. According to the nurse, she’s moved you every which way trying to get Baby to turn, and you’ve been nothing but obliging. Best Patient Ever.”

Rey sensed a massive “But” coming.

“But, you’ve been at this for three hours, and we aren’t seeing the progress we need to be seeing at this point.”

“What? What do you mean? Is my baby okay?” Rey blurted out. _Three hours?!_ She was panicking. Ben grabbed her hand, rubbing her knuckles soothingly.

“It’s okay, Sweetheart. The baby is okay, Doctor Holdo?” Ben asked softly, his dark hair a mess, his warm eyes tired.

“Oh yes! Your baby is just fine!” Doctor Holdo reassured immediately. “But, she’s being difficult. She’s facing the wrong way, and your pelvis is very small. It makes progress difficult.”

Rey breathed again.

“So, you have two options. You can keep pushing, or we can do a C-section now.”

As Rey thought, she felt another urge to push. She wearily grabbed her bar, Ben supporting her, and she pushed again, Doctor Holdo once again coaching her through it. She was so tired.

Rey looked at Ben. He was looking at her with love and concern in his warm brown eyes. 

“What should I do?” she asked, her voice very quiet.

“It’s your decision, Sweetheart. I want you to do what’s best for you and Stella,” Ben replied, giving her hand a slight shake.

“You’ll be allowed to go into surgery with her, Ben,” Doctor Holdo added. “You just have to scrub in.”

Rey tried to think. She felt so gross, barely half human at this point. She was so tired. Her brain was so fuzzy. She looked at Doctor Holdo. “You’re the doctor. What should I do?”

Doctor Holdo hesitated for only a moment. “C-section. I just don’t see this working with you pushing. Too many factors are impeding safe progress.”

Rey gave a slight nod and squeezed Ben’s hand. “Do it,” she stated with finality.

***

Rey watched the ceiling roll by as she was wheeled to surgery. She had been instructed not to push anymore, which surprisingly was an order easy enough to comply with. The epidural helped, in addition to being exhausted. Rey thought back. She and Ben had come in around midnight. Rey had been tossing and turning for hours, unable to sleep. Their dogs had been unusually attentive that evening, the male not leaving her side. He jumped eagerly onto the bed with her, lying calmly at her feet while she fretted. As Ben was brushing his teeth, Rey had felt a sudden flood of wetness between her legs, and she cried out, panicked. Ben had come in, toothbrush in hand and minty foam around his mouth, eyebrow raised. Rey looked at him from the side of the bed where she’d more or less jumped, eyes wide and legs akimbo as fluid continued to flow down, soaking her sleep pants. Ben had calmly gone back into the bathroom, rinsed his mouth, and called the hospital, setting the phone on the bed so Rey could talk into the speakerphone while he finished putting together their hospital bag. 

“Are you having contractions?” the on call doctor asked.

“I...I don’t…” Rey’s mind was totally blank, preoccupied with the state she was currently in. Terror gripped her.

“Okay, Hun. You are going to come in, and we are going to admit you. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Rey had whimpered.

“See you in a few minutes, Sweetie.”

Rey hung up and looked at Ben. “It’s time,” she warbled.

Ben took a deep breath and nodded. “I’ll get the dogs in their crates.”

Rey nodded. She grabbed a clean pair of underwear and dry pants and headed to the bathroom. She fixed a pad to the underwear and changed while Ben took care of the dogs. She waddled to the dining room and slipped on her boots and coat. She was shaking. Ben shouldered their bag and took her hand, walking her slowly to the car. He held her hand the whole way to the hospital.

It was now around ten or so in the morning. Someone, a doctor or a nurse, had injected something into the epidural that made it feel like ice was rushing through her veins, and Rey felt herself going numb as she entered a very bright, very cold room. Doctors and nurses were introducing themselves, but she hardly took notice. She tried to give each a grateful smile though. She didn’t know why, only that it was the polite thing to do. Her head lolled to the side, and she didn’t see Ben.

“Where Ben?” she slurred.

“I’m right here, Rey!” Ben called from the door. He had a yellow gown on over his clothes, a cap over his hair, and a mask over his mouth. He took her hand again. Rey closed her eyes as the nurses settled a curtain of sorts over her midsection. She couldn’t feel anything past the curtain. She was so cold. So tired. Another nurse sat beside her and took her other hand. It probably was so she could watch Rey’s monitors, but Rey appreciated her calming presence. 

She was murmuring softly to Rey. “Try to stay awake, Honey. Keep your arms still.”

Rey realized she was laid out in a Christ like pose, which she found curious. Alert Rey would find it weird.

“Just gonna close my eyes. Promise I’m not sleeping. So cold,” Rey babbled.

“The cold is so you stay awake, Honey,” the nurse said.

Rey hummed. _That’s dumb_ , Rey thought. She heard the nurse laugh. Apparently she’d said that out loud. _Oh well_. Ben was quiet beside her, and he kept rubbing her hand.

After some time, Rey had no idea how long, she heard Ben say quietly, “Oh my God.”

“Wha..?” Rey asked, cracking open her eyes and looking at him, confused.

The nurse beside her leaned down and whispered, “Do you want to see your baby?”

Rey’s eyes snapped open at that, and she nodded vigorously. 

The nurse smiled and reached for the curtain, tugging down a Velcro flap in the middle. Rey watched, dumbfounded, as a tiny wriggling red body suddenly appeared from somewhere near her stomach. She gasped and choked, mouth agape. It was her baby. Stella. She was perfect, if a bit odd looking.

“Want to cut the cord, Dad?” one of the doctors asked Ben. 

“Hell yes,” Ben stammered, tears falling down his face as he got up.

Rey’s head fell back against the table, a few dry sobs leaving her. The doctors whisked Stella to a baby scale, taking measurements and vitals, Ben hovering nearby and taking a couple pictures with his phone. After she was cleaned and wrapped in a warmed blanket, they placed her in a bassinet and wheeled her next to Rey. Rey stared at the squirming baby while the doctors finished extracting her placenta and then as they stitched and cleaned her up. The doctor was saying something about how big the incision was, but Rey didn’t hear. She didn’t care. When they were finished, she and Stella were wheeled out into a recovery area, Ben following close behind. 

A nurse adjusted Rey’s bed so she was sitting up somewhat, Ben settled on one side, Stella’s bassinet on the other. 

“Cold,” Rey whimpered, shivers wracking her body. The nurse settled two heated hospital blankets over her exhausted body. She sobbed with how heavenly the warmth felt.

“Do you want to hold your baby?” the nurse asked kindly.

Rey nodded, tears streaming down her face as she held her arms open in her lap. The nurse carefully reached into the bassinet and lifted the tiny bundle. She gently placed the swaddled infant in Rey’s arms, and Rey looked down into the sleeping face of her daughter for the first time, carefully adjusting her little hat. The nurse quietly retreated, sliding the dividing curtain closed. 

Ben leapt up from his chair and carefully leaned on the hospital bed to wrap his arm around Rey’s shaking shoulders. He gingerly rested one of his hands over Rey’s arm as she snuggled Stella close to her chest. Rey looked up at Ben, giving him a watery smile. His cheeks were damp from happy tears, just like she knew hers were. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

“We’re parents now,” Rey whispered, scarcely able to believe it.

“Yup,” Ben replied with a sniffle and a scratch of his nose. Rey rested her tired head on Ben’s shoulder and watched her daughter sleep, feeling more at peace than she ever had in her entire life. When she felt Ben sigh, she knew he felt it, too.


End file.
